| Cover up. 09:42 - Mar 1 with 5922 views | bwildered |
Don’t want to be a killjoy, but better to put the covers on the pitch now, if we want game time tomorrow . |  |
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| Cover up. on 09:23 - Mar 12 with 1084 views | bwildered |
Revenue must be concern without home gate receipt over last month. Perhaps keep the covers on and getting some penguins onboard from the local Zoo.
Sorry it’s NOT April 1st ! [Post edited 12 Mar 9:24]
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| Cover up. on 09:55 - Mar 12 with 1051 views | TheOldOakTree |
Putting covers on a football pitch is like someone who’s having a nervous breakdown turning to the bottle to calm their nerves. It is the road to ruin.
Covers belong on a cricket square where you cannot cut in sand grooves (although I guess most bowlers would be happy with the idea). Even then they need to be above the ground to let the air circulate. You can get away with tarpaulin on healthy grass, in the summer, on the bowlers’ run-up for a few hours, but you cannot have them on weak grass in the winter/early spring, for days on end.
You know what happens when you move your gnomes around the lawn. That yellow dying grass doesn’t just happen after a week, it starts to damage the grass the minute you starve it of light and oxygen.
Then there’s the damage you do putting the covers on and off and unless the covers cover the whole pitch you just concentrate the water around the edges. If you leave the covers on, it traps water under them and you miss out on drying time between showers. If you keep taking them on and off you damage the turf.
Using covers to keep the frost off, is a different thing all together.
You can get super-duper covers that let light through etc., but there is only one solution that will work and that is efficient drainage. Until you have that, you are just treating the symptoms.
This is 2024, looking after a sports pitch is not an art, it’s a precise science that has come a very long way since the 1970’s. It’s big money, there are agronomists in universities around the world that dedicate their life’s work to constructing, draining, maintaining and repairing sports pitches.
Once it all goes wrong and the rain won’t stop, there is no magic fix. |  | | |
| Cover up. on 10:39 - Mar 12 with 1013 views | bwildered |
For info
In past years the super sopper at Chelmsford was allowed to pump the collected water directly into the river Cam. It is now not allowed, so the water is deposited in allocated areas of the ground, usually in front of sight screens.
Essex Senior Cup final allocated next Tuesday 19th must also be doubtful, together with rain again forecast Friday for Saturdays fixture. | |
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| Cover up. on 10:52 - Mar 12 with 1000 views | TheOldOakTree |
| Cover up. on 10:39 - Mar 12 by bwildered |
For info
In past years the super sopper at Chelmsford was allowed to pump the collected water directly into the river Cam. It is now not allowed, so the water is deposited in allocated areas of the ground, usually in front of sight screens.
Essex Senior Cup final allocated next Tuesday 19th must also be doubtful, together with rain again forecast Friday for Saturdays fixture. |
I guess the cricket pitch would have fertiliser etc and the water would be considered as contaminated.
If the authorities won't let them put water in the river on the grounds that it will increase flooding, then that's just jobsworth. Cricket is played in the summer, summer rainfall is different to winter flooding. By the time you get out with a super sopper the worst of the run-off from a thunderstorm will be long gone. [Post edited 12 Mar 11:42]
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| Cover up. on 14:48 - Mar 15 with 849 views | RSCOSWORTH |
A warm, dry and breezy day so far. The covers are currently off and work is continuing on the pitch and we'll have a new pitch tomorrow...kind of.
https://www.cu-fc.com/news/2024/march/pitch-change-approved/
Actually a subset of the original pitch but we'll take it if it means we have more chance of playing. Seems like a pretty good idea if you ask me. |  |
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| Cover up. on 15:05 - Mar 15 with 844 views | bwildered |
Quite an unusual occurrence, once at the start of the season all dimensions have to be circulated to every other club in your division and any change had to be submitted for authorisation. | |
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| Cover up. on 15:24 - Mar 15 with 841 views | noah4x4 |
Smaller pitch might benefit us. We will always be closer to the opposition goal than previous. Maybe we might shoot more often and Akinde last more than 60 minutes? |  | | |
| Cover up. on 16:56 - Mar 15 with 792 views | Witham |
1mm of rainfall on a pitch of approximately this size is8100 litres of water. I'm not clever enough to calculate the size of pipe required to discharge that volume into a ditch at an acceptable rate but I am sure others will be.
However having done some locum work for a Town Council that had been "gifted" an underground suds chamber of the milk crate style and was having complaints about it, we soon realised that what it required was regular cleaning of the gullies, silt trap plus an annual washout of the discharge pipes. Often when longserving staff leave that's the sort of knowledge they take with them | | | |
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| Cover up. on 19:49 - Mar 15 with 756 views | wessex_exile |
| Cover up. on 10:52 - Mar 12 by TheOldOakTree |
I guess the cricket pitch would have fertiliser etc and the water would be considered as contaminated.
If the authorities won't let them put water in the river on the grounds that it will increase flooding, then that's just jobsworth. Cricket is played in the summer, summer rainfall is different to winter flooding. By the time you get out with a super sopper the worst of the run-off from a thunderstorm will be long gone. [Post edited 12 Mar 11:42]
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Although contamination would be a factor, it's not the risk of flooding usually. You can't normally discharge direct into a watercourse if the water contains silt (which ours almost certainly will), it messes up the ecosystem and kills things, and the Environment Agency tend to take a pretty dim view of that (i.e. they'll prosecute you). The soakaway should take care of that, allowing excess water to either percolate back into the ground over time, or in warmer climates, evaporate, leaving the silt to be periodically taken out and transferred to landfill.
Changing the pitch size, provided it stays within the required aspect ratio, looks to be a very smart move by the club. |  |
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| Cover up. on 20:34 - Mar 15 with 728 views | franksic1988 |
| Cover up. on 15:24 - Mar 15 by noah4x4 |
Smaller pitch might benefit us. We will always be closer to the opposition goal than previous. Maybe we might shoot more often and Akinde last more than 60 minutes? |
Maybe we could to make our goal smaller and their one larger that may help 😂 even big John would score then. [Post edited 15 Mar 21:42]
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| Cover up. on 09:52 - Mar 16 with 667 views | bwildered |
The reduction in pitch size will reduce time and space when in possession, giving us a parity over more successful sizes who probably have more confidence on the ball. Let’s hope it is now similar size to the pitch at Heybridge where they have been outdoor training giving themselves a familiarity to the new dimensions.
Wonder how the pitch size now compares with the rest in the division ? Who has the largest and smallest pitches in the division.
Anyway, sunny day Saturday, but the covers will need to place after match has Sunday looks like another rain fest . | |
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| Cover up. on 19:48 - Mar 21 with 570 views | noah4x4 |
Now the club is offering post season pitch hire for £750. Isn’t the higher priority to resolve the drainage? | | | |
| Cover up. on 19:59 - Mar 21 with 560 views | TheOldOakTree |
| Cover up. on 19:48 - Mar 21 by noah4x4 |
Now the club is offering post season pitch hire for £750. Isn’t the higher priority to resolve the drainage? |
I saw that and thought the same.
There are only just over 3 months between the two seasons.
That's not long to carry out significant drainage works and then get grass to grow | | | |
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